Trick or treating this year was a lot more comfortable, considering that the weather was sunny and everyone seemed to be in a cheerier mood.  My eldest nephew, Josh, dressed up as an alien.  In the first photo he is wearing his mask, but he soon realized that wearing a hard plastic mask can be very uncomfortable and so he didn't wear it for very long.  My younger nephew, Nick, is an executioner who carried his pumpkin of candy on the end of his battle axe.  My nephews come up with all sorts of interesting choices for costumes, many during the year, and I'm always pleasantly surprised to see what they finally decide to do.  Since Nick is the most goth of the family this year, he did me proud.  Now all he needs to do is get into heavy metal music... oh, wait, they both already are courtesy of Guitar Hero!

After stopping at a local K-Mart, my brother Mark started to get into the spirit of things and decided he should also dress up a little.  I think he would've made a perfect Nathan Explosion, lead singer of death metal band DETHKLOCK from the adult swim animated series, Metalocalyse, but that would've required him to straighten his hair, shave, and put on black nail polish.  We didn't have time for that.  So Mark decorated his head with orange, black, and purple spider antenna that had me giggling all while we walked the neighborhood.

As for me, well, the simplest thing for me to do is do the witchy thing.  My nephews and I kept joking that I'm a REAL witch dressed up as a pretend witch.  Yes, my family is priviledged to have a Dianic Witch in the family, so the boys know all about me being Pagan and why this time of year is special.  Still, no matter what the spiritual significance, it's really all about the candy to them... that and getting to dress up!

So, yes, we had some fun.  It's amazing how much people decorate and go all out for this holiday.  There was even an adventurous "werewolf" in a tree handing out goodies.  Too cute. 

Oh, and I got compliments on my costume.  Actually, we all got compliments.  We seemed to be the only family that was all costumed up together.  What can I say?  It's a tradition.  Still, gotta wonder who is crazier looking -- me as a fantasy witch, or my brother grinning maniacally behind me?